Conviction of Etan Patz killer Pedro Hernandez overturned, new trial ordered

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News on Jul 21, 2025

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NEW YORK — A federal appeals court on Monday overturned the conviction of Pedro Hernandez, the SoHo bodega clerk convicted of kidnapping and murdering 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979 — reopening the book on one of the city’s most notorious slayings.

Hernandez, now 64, is currently serving 25 years to life for the decades-old killing that horrified the city and reverberated around the country. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the judge at his 2017 trial gave improper instructions to the jury, warranting either a new trial or Hernandez’s release from custody.

Emily Tuttle, a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said, “We are reviewing the decision.”

Hernandez’s appeal contended that an instruction by the trial court judge in response to a jury note about his confessions improperly ignored Supreme Court precedent. A three-judge panel agreed.

“We conclude that the state trial court contradicted clearly established federal law and that this error was not harmless,” the panel wrote.

After Hernandez’s first trial ended in a mistrial in 2015 when a single holdout refused to convict, prosecutors retried the case, leading to his 2017 conviction for preying upon Etan as the child walked alone to his school bus stop for the first time on May 25, 1979.

In 2012, Hernandez admitted to police that he had lured Etan to the basement of the shop where he worked on West Broadway and Prince Street, and choked him to death, jurors heard at his trial. He said he then disposed of his body in a nearby alley; Etan’s body was never found.

While deliberating in 2017, jurors asked the court to explain whether, if they found that Hernandez’s confessions before he was read his Miranda rights were involuntary, they must disregard his post-Miranda confessions.

The judge responded, “No.”

The appeals court on Monday cited precedent that held the law enforcement tactic of intentionally obtaining an inadmissible confession, administering a Miranda warning, and then getting the suspect to repeat the confession to be unconstitutional.

“Despite the jury’s note seeking an as to how it was to assess Hernandez’s subsequent statements, the trial court provided none,” the panel wrote.

“Indeed, the answer ‘no’ was manifestly inaccurate, dramatically so (...)”

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